you have got to come here legally. once you committed a crime you should not allowed to come back. >> announcer: hotpots arise around the world. our military is powering down. >> the army is reducing its size. >> i worry about the capability and capacity to win in a major fight. g >> announcer: with the armed forces getting new marchingar orders. >> male cadets were pressured into walking around in women's high heels. i found that bizarre.

fox news reporting. rising threats, shrinking military. here is bret baier. bret: the iwo jimma memorial reminds us of many things, the uncommon va valor our troops. but it's a dangerous world out there. and the military never knows when it will be called upon and there is no replacement for a military that is strong and ready. >> let us pray.eter eternal father as we bid fair winds and following seas to the fighting 56 ... s bret: we are witnessing a military funeral, not of a person, but the navy frigate. u.s.s. simpson is being decommissioned.

>> there is an element of sadness to saying good-bye. bret: the simpson was the last u.s. ship. reporter: we'll protect our ships if they threaten us, they will pay a price. bret: navy had many of this class of frigate. now they are all decommissioned. it's not just navy that's saying good-bye to old friends. in march 2014 the army bid in march 2014 the army bid helicopter, a war hoafers their air cavalry in iraq and afghanistan. >> it's only going not history books that people even know thee

role they played. bret: in the air force the president capped the number of f-22 stealth fighters. far short of the number originally expected. >> our budget is a zero sum game. bret: these actions reflect a trend. numerous military programs have been scrapped, including combat search and rescue helicopter. the combat vehicle program. the navy's next generation cruiser and several missile defense program such as the one for poland and the czech republic. the army's active force is expected to drop to the smallest since before world war ii. 450,000 soldiers. we cut the military to its lowest levels yet we are facing a world that is the most complex

environment we have faced since the end of world war ii. bret: retired four star generall michael flynn ran the page tella jones agency during his administration. >> mayor case in a less strong position today because of thekeo readiness and size of our armed forces. bret: i spoke to secretary gates. he told me president obama promised him there wouldn't bewh any significant changes in the military budget for a while. overall did he keep to his word? >> i think it began to fray. fray may be too gentle a word. bret prr gatebret: gates was ina president wanted to announce even more cuts. >> over the last two years

secretary gates has courageously taken on wasteful spending saving $400 million in current and future spending. i think we can do that again. >> i felt double crossed. after all these years in washington, i was naive. bret: to many the cuts weren't about economic efficiency but a strategic change in the role of the military. >> you told obama staffers that this would send a strategic message abod, the united states is going home, cut a deal with iran and china while you can. >> you are sending a message to the rest of the world that you are basically retreating. bret: you meet with president obama and tell him the way you will compensate for force cutsl in the next war will be with blood. what was his response to that? >> i think he acknowledged it.

way was pitching at a minimum was the world doesn't seem to be getting better. before you head down a pad of deep cuts in defense, why don't you take it kind of slow. it was one of those things where i lost the argument. >> i think he sees the military actually as something that iso more dangerous to the world. i think he looks at us -- i think he looks at the united states military and sees it as d threatening application arounde the world than actually as a useful tool. bret: how much more dangerous do you think it world is now than it was 7, 8 years ago? >> i think far more dangerous. bret: the obama administration has been tightening thebelt of the military. is this being done to match a slimmed down version of american foreign policy? we'll look at that when we return.

bret: our diminished military didn't come about slim due to cost-cutting measures. some sight as part and parcel of this administration's particular view of america's part in the world. on the night he was elected barack obama promised a different sort of foreign policy. >> a new dawn of american leadership is at hand. bret: march 6, 2009, secretary of state johsecretaryof state hd reset button with russia.that dn and president obama promised. >> new relationship with the muslim world.e

he had a confidence that he could alter fundamentally our relationship with the muslim world. bret: joe lieberman was chairman of the homeland security committee. >> the message he sent was the united states was knot no longer going to exercise its leadership in the world. through democratic through republican presidential administrations from the end of the world right until this time had bent great guarantor of security and prosperity and freedom in the world. bret: jeffrey goldberg whoreigno interviewed barack obama on his foreign policy tried to explain the president's approach. >> he refers to the washington playbook, something happens in country x and therefore we have to send 50 cruz missiles. what he says is he wants to

break washington of the habit that every problem overseas comes with a potential military solution.al bret require was clear he had a new take. a but the question remains, what would president obama actually do. >> it was important that we m tried to maintain a military presence there in order to make sure that the gains that had been achieved, a lot of blood by the youth as well as iraqis, that those gains could be maintained. reporter: leon a northeast was president obama's secretary of defense from 2011 to 2013. >> that's why the pentagon supported the processes. bret: the key was to negotiate a stay-behind force. the president would have to take the lead. >> the on chance we would have had for an agreement would have

been his intensive involvement personally, and that didn't happen. >> so december 18, 2011, the last convoy of u.s. troops pulled out of iraq. while all that was happening, the arab spring was spreading throughout the arab world. demonstration and riots and civil wars and people challenging hair leaders. january 25, 2011, egyptians gathered in cairo's tahrir square to protest the policies of the egyptian president hosni mubarak, america's ally. >> i always considered egypt critical to our ability to provide stability in the middle east. the president pushed for his immediate removal while the military urged caution.

>> the national security team recommended unanimously handling mubarak differently than we didn and the president took thek advice of three junior back benchers, one of them saying, mr. president, you have got to be on the right side of history. >> i would be sitting at the table and say if we could figure that out we would be a long way ahead. bret: february 11, mubarak resigned. >> the happiest day in the whito how was probably the day mubarak left. bret: in june, 2012, egyptw pred elected mohammad morsi of the muslim brotherhood. in february, 2011, libya also went up in flames. the country's dictator, moammar qaddafi had been cooperate

wusmght s. since the invasion of iraq in 2003. many voices were demanding he be removed from power. once again the president's top military advisors counseled caution. when he sided with those month supported the overthrow of qaddafi the secretary of defense went to extraordinary measures. bret: did you tell your subordinates to limit the amount of options you give the white house. >> i said i don't want plans or options going to the white house i haven't seen. bret: you wrote it differently. don't give them too many options, they don't understand it have much. you were concerned about that. >> running military operations out of the white house. the experience we had had with that in vietnam didn't work so well.

bret: march 19, 2011, president obama ordered the american military to lead a coalition to confront qaddafi. the libyan leader was captured and killed by a mob. >> we came, we saw, he died. then there is syria. on august 20, 2012, after the syrian regime led by bashar al-assad, threatened to use chemical weapons against its enemies in america's civil war, president obama put him on in the. >> a red line for us is we see a whole bunch of chemical weaponsa being moved our or being utilized.red li bret: august 21, 013, the assad

regime used those chemical weapons to kill hundreds of men, women and children. how would president obama respond? he ordered his military to stand down. >> we demonstrated weakness instead of strength.ign poli bret: when we return we look at how he's transforming our military from the ground up. [ cheering ]

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xfinity watchathon week to return. upgrade now to add the premium channel of your choice so you can keep watching. call or go online today. bret: if our military is going through a transformation in how it relates to the rest of the world, it's going through a revolution in how it deals with it self.

>> you are standing side by side in a life or death situation next other warriors, you have to know in the bottom your soul that those warriors will stand with you. bret: mike waltz, a special forces commander is referring what is sometimes called the warrior culture. >> you have to have that bond.th anything that interferes with that bond needs to be treated very carefully. bret: which is why some critics of barack obama fear the way he utilizes the armed forces. >> this president has imposed a political agenda on the military. >> reporter: elaine donnelly is the president of the center for military read -- red irnes.

>> he redefined the military as a civil rights institution. bret: his determination to overturn don't ask-don't tell.wa >> this was one area where i saw him become ache are you when things -- become angry when things weren't moving as quickle as he wanted them to move. i didn't see that anger at the lack of progress on any other issue that i dealt withg don't certainly. bret: ending don't ask, don't tell was one of the first social changes imposed on the u.s. military by the administration,d but not the last. hundreds of soldiers were a summoned to a power point presentation about white male heterosexual privilege and the need to discuss oppression in the patriarchy. and then there was an exercise

with rotc cadets. >> they were pressured by the military to walk around college campuses in high heels to t demonstrate their disapproval of the quote-unquote rape culture. >> i found that bizarre. when i was an rotc cadet i was doing pushups and running until i threw up if my boots weren't shined the way they needed to be. bret: the obama administration removed all restrictions on women. >> they will be able to serve as green when raise, air force para jumpers that was previously only open to men. >> by opening that door you are saying if that's something you are interested in, here are the standard. >> if you meet those standard, then you should be allowed to

serve whether you are a man or woman. bret: but critics say it's not that simple. >> the fact that men and women are interchangeable is utterly absurd. reporter: sergeant eaton served in fallujah. >> the standard will be lowered formally or informally. there is no such thing as gender neutral. the sexes are not neutral. bret: she contend by lifting the combat restriction, the military is recognizing reality.. >> women have been serving in our military for a long time. we have seen over a decade a he go a womb in the national guard was award the silver star for her bravery in close quarters combat. >> a lot of the advocates say women have been fighting in combat for decade it's just not true. j i was in the infantry on the

outskirts of fallujah. wear in danger all day every dah we were looking for explosives. but that's not the same as hunting the enemy where he lives, house to house, cave to cave, mostly on foot. brit critics argue under the new law women will be ordered into combat whether they want to be or not. >> america need to think about their women hand-to-hand * combat with isis fighters. 92.5% of the army women surveyed wanted nothing to do with comba assignments. >> what concerns me with this administration in dealing withor this warrior culture so critical to the success of our military. they don't understand it and oftentimes they are distrusting. if you turn the military into a social smermt rather than a fighting force with a certain

level of readiness to defend this nation, that's dangerous for the united states and it's dangerous for the world. bret: some fear social changesha required of the military may cause trouble. others fear they already have. that's next. here's the plan. you grow up wanting to be a lawyer, because your dad's a lawyer. and you land a job with a 401k and meet your wife. you're surprised how much you both want kids, and equally surprised you can't have them. so together, you adopt a little boy... and then his two brothers... and you up your life insurance because four people depend on you now. then, one weekend, when everyone has a cold and you've spent the whole day watching tv, you realize that you didn't plan for any of this, but you wouldn't have done it any other way. with the right financial partner, progress is possible. poallergies?reather. stuffy nose? can't sleep? take that. a breathe right nasal strip instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than allergy medicine alone.

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against islamic terrorism as overseas contingency operations. >> yeah. bret: and the acts of islamic terrorism were to be referred to as man-caused disasters. >> completely exemplifies the approach of this administration we're not going to call our enemies what they are, which are islamic terrorists. bret: the political correctness this administration requires of the military. some think it's harmless. others wonder. >> at fort hood in texas, on a clear day in 2009, major nidal hasan, a doctor in the u.s. military stood up on a table, shouted allahu akbar and then began to fire. he killed 13 and wounded many others. it was a shocking event. bret: staff sergeant alonso lonsford was one of the 32 soldiers hasan wounded that

day. >> he blinked. the first round went in over my left eye and spun me around and i hit the floor. he came up on me and shot me again. bret: as sergeant lunsford lay still in a pool of his own blood. he watched hasan train his weapon on 21-year-old army private francesca velez. >> when he was getting ready to shoot her, she said i'm pregnant, i'm pregnant, he fired anyway and said his last words were my baby, my baby, my baby. bret: private velez and her baby died that day. a horrific event and some believe a preventable one. >> hasan, the fort hood terrorist killer was communicating with anwar al-awlaki in yemen.

bret: in one of the e-mails hasan told him i can't wait to join you in the afterlife. lieberman, who led the senate investigation into the fort hood massacre suspects the blame may reside in the environment prevailing in obama's military. >> political correctness can't lead you to close your eyes to a clear and present danger to the u.s. and to your colleagues in the u.s. army. bret: that air of political correctness only thickened as the obama administration insisted that what happened at fort hood was not an act of islamic terrorism but an example of, quote, workplace violence. >> how could you say that a terrorist murdering 13 americans was workplace violence? that's just ridiculous. bret: as for sergeant lunsford, he's still hurt by the government's lack of frankness. >> what hurts more than the wound itself is a sense of betrayal because a sense of betrayal is when you wake up, it's there.

when you sleep, it's there. it's something that never leaves me, never leaves me. >> the divide between the obama administration and many in the military only widened over the handling ever the case of army private bowe bergdahl. bergdahl, a man the obama administration labeled a p.o.w. was released by the taliban in exchange for five of their top leaders. the ceremony announcing his release was supposed to be a celebration. >> this morning, i called bob and jannie bergdahl and told them that after nearly five years in captivity, their son bowe is coming home. bret: what was your reaction when president obama hosted bergdahl's parents at the rose garden ceremony? >> i was pissed. absolutely. in my view, bergdahl should have never been labeled as a p.o.w. bret: the men you served with consider him a soldier who had been captured or a man who had deserted his platoon? >> we knew immediately that day

the circumstances of his disappearance. he essentially had just deserted his post. we were mad as hell about it but didn't diminish any of our efforts to try to get him. bret: walsh was ordered to lead special forces teams to search for bergdahl. >> it was the number one priority in the entire theater of afghanistan, and the taliban immediately knew it, and they began feeding false information into our informant networks to bait us into ambushes. one of my special forces teams went into an afghan compound where we thought bergdahl might be, and the entire thing was rigged with explosives. by the grace of god it didn't explode but those were the types of situations we continually found ourselves in night after night after night for months. bret: president obama responded to the controversy by dispatching one of his top aides to praise bergdahl. >> he served the united states with honor and distinction. >> when president obama sends out national security adviser susan rice and says, in fact, bowe bergdahl served the united states with honor and

distinction? >> i about threw my television out into the yard. both me, his fellow platoon mates. my men, fellow green berets that nearly died looking for him were outraged. it also shows how tone deaf this white house can be to how military members think and feel. they take words like that, served with honor and distinction, very seriously. >> frankly, the white house probably should have made no statement whatsoever. bret: leon panetta told us he was dismayed by how the white house handled the bergdahl case. >> i don't mind obviously the effort and negotiations, but you don't just walk in and say we'll give you five bad guys. these are individuals who killed, in many cases, our own soldiers. bret: what assurance do we have they're not going to wind up blowing up innocent americans? >> demoralizing, incredibly demoralizing, and demoralizing

to our men and women in uniform as well. when you're out there in harm's way and commander in chief releases the top five draft picks, sends a bad message to troops and afghan allies that we need to be serving alongside and encouraging. bret: how has this new vision of the u.s. military been playing out across the world? that's next. i have asthma... ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine.

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earlier we s . bret: earlier, we saw the diplomatic overtures the obama administration made when it took office. today, we can see how those policies played out. the president had promised a diplomatic reset with russia, even scrapping a missile defense system in europe as a conciliatory gesture. and after his re-election, he pulled america's main battle tanks out of germany, tanks that had been there since world war ii. all eyes were on vladimir puti to see how he'd respond? and in february 2014, putin sent in troops to seize ukraine's crimean peninsula. >> we have a different kind of relationship than what has actually emerged. we didn't anticipate that

russia would illegally annex crimea. we didn't see that kind of destabilizing activity. bret: next, putin's forces began menacing ukraine itself. >> the fundamental point in dealing with a bully like putin is that you cannot allow bullies to get away with what they want to do. bret: but the president rejected calls for a muscular response, instead announcing limited sanctions. >> i resolve to set it diplomatically in a way that addresses russia and ukraine. >> i think the president should have taken very strong steps to make very clear to putin that this was unacceptable. he should have provided arms for the ukrainians. bret: but he didn't. and today, russia is emboldened, threatening to spread its spear of influence even wider. >> secretaries panetta and gates and others told us that

you can let bullies get away with bullying or you pay a price. >> i was talking about ukraine with the president, and he told me very bluntly, that ukraine, as a non-nato country, living in the shadow of russia, will always be subject to russian meddling and domination. so what he's doing there is basically signalling that this is not worth the united states' investment. bret: then, there were barack obama's overtures to the muslim world where, he hoped to change the image of america. he had pulled american troops out of iraq, without a stay-behind force, that had been recommended by his military advisers. but without a u.s. presence, violence immediately returned across the country. neil ferguson, a professor of history at harvard university remembers talking to veterans of the war. >> they had turned it around.

to be told the mission is being aborted must have been a shattering blow. bret: the iraqis, of course, couldn't leave. some found another cause. >> many of them wound up eventually working with isis to create the force that ultimately came back and invaded that part of iraq that they helped and hold today. bret: in egypt, president obama had supported the overthrow of america leaning hosni mubarak, and his administration applauded when a new president was elected. the muslim brotherhood's mohammed morsi. >> i have come to alexandria to reaffirm the strong support of the united states for the egyptian people and for your democratic future. >> this was hilariously wrong in the egyptian case, because

the muslim brotherhood turned out to be the most extreme group capable of winning large number of votes. bret: once in office, morsi granted powers and imposed constitution based on sharia law. egypt welcomed the ouster of mubarak and morsi. >> egypt was a classic case of hope, hope and change not actually coming to fruition. bret: egypt descended into chaos, morsi in turn was overthrown in a coup. libya had been the one nation where president obama was willing to take action with an intervention supported by the u.n. soon, dictator moammar gadhafi was gone, which only led to the question, what happened next? what happened next was libya fell into chaos. a fact brought home tragically by an attack in benghazi which killed four americans, including ambassador chris stevens. soon warring factions,

including isis and al qaeda, were fighting for power. a complete mistake to go into libya. >> i was in a key job in the administration, and i can't sit here and tell you what were our goals for that operation. i really don't know. to eliminate gadhafi? that was a severely dumb decision. >> he said very bluntly to me about the libya intervention, quote, it didn't work. bret: wasn't he warned by people like secretary gates about libya's tribal history and the dangers of taking out gadhafi. >> a huge fight in the administration. turns out the gates side was right but i think obama now is on the side of, you know what, i should not have let myself be pressured into this intervention, and not profoundly influenced the way he dealt with syria in the next couple years. bret: syria, you will recall, is where president obama drew a red line, and then, it was crossed. the president and his advisers

agreed on an attack plan, but he pulled back at the last moment. >> i use the term stunned because i was stunned by that. bret: chuck hagel served as president obama's secretary of defense from 2013 to 2015. >> it reversed a very comprehensive, complete decision that had just been made a few hours prior to that, and the president had made the final decision, and a few hours later, we're pulling that down, reversing that. bret: secretary hagel told us the president's decision damaged america's credibility. >> it was all over the world, and our allies would ask me, how can we have confidence in whatever else he says? >> it's an old principle that the president should be very careful about drawing lines. once he drew that line, then the united states is obligated to enforce that -- that red line.

>> for a lot of people in washington. >> and a bunch of other places around the world, this was a weak moment in the united states, a weak moment in his presidency. what he told me is not only was it a weak moment, it was a, quote, proud moment for him because it's the moment that he broke with the washington playbook. bret: he doesn't see it as weakness at all? >> he sees it as a moment of great prudence, thapplication of smarts. he does not see it as weakness, it is a strength. bret: is it a proud moment? others ask what has it produced. >> in theent, what do you have? you have a middle east that will be devastated, more suffering, more killing, more distress, more hatred. >> and so the man who presented himself as the man of peace is actually presided over much more violence in the muslim world than happened under his predecessors. bret: when we return, we talk to men in uniform and ask them if we're prepared?

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. bret: america is lucky that it's been separated from its greatest enemies by two oceans, but the world is getting smaller, which makes some ask if it's a good idea that our military is getting smaller? in the summer of 2014, vladimir putin tested his air force against nato defenses. >> it's in a large contingent of aircraft that we hadn't necessarily seen before as far as the numbers in that formation. bret: it was one of several such incidents, and the

response was very much like the drill you're seeing now. at joint base elmendorf-richardson in alaska. the colonel pilots this stealth raptor and ready to go on a moment's notice. >> it takes a lot of time to get up there, every second on the ground we can get closer in identifying what's out there. bret: one thing they have seen out there, russian tu 95 bear bombers, capable of carrying nuclear weapons. >> acknowledge that you are there. bret: these encounters have become common enough lately that at norad, the eyes of the north, they've gone back to an old custom, placing red plaques on the wall every time there's an intercept. there are plenty of experts who see russia as a danger we can't simply ignore. >> russia presents the greatest threat to our national security.

>> russia is the only country on earth that has the capability to destroy the united states of america. >> we're confronting a russia that has now entered a new chapter in the cold war. bret: not only russia we have to watch out for. last september, china sent five warships toward alaskan waters. >> we began to posture ourselves for any event that might happen while they were there, especially with understanding the president would be visiting at that time. bret: colonel harley boddine commands the norad air operation center. >> we move forces around to ensure we were able to track them with the utmost confidence to know where they were the entire time. bret: while the chinese were offshore, president obama visited anchorage and gave a speech. >> proves this once distant threat is now very much in the present. bret: he wasn't referring to a military threat. >> human activity is disrupting the climate. bret: he was talking about climate change. meanwhile as russia builds

brand new bases across the arctic, and china builds up its land and sea forces, the pentagon is reviewing a decision to cut back up to 71% of an airborne paratrooper brigade based in alaska. >> every senior governmental official knows this is a vital component of the army. bret: deputy commander jeffrey crapo is part of the 425 infantry brigade combat team ready to go anywhere in the pacific within hours notice. >> our senior leaders had to make tough decisions in the environment we're in right now. bret: such decisions are part of our newersmaller military in newer, less intrusive role. to neil ferguson, there's a lesson in all this that we're already starting to learn, the hard way. >> the less an is when a great part withdraws, the conflict is most likely to escalate. that's exactly what's happened, and the result is a sobering

one. bret: indeed amid the rising threats, the army has returned its battle tanks to europe and pushed off the decision to cut the 425 until another year until another president takes office. >> what kind of world will that president, he or she, inherit? >> the next president will face a world that is more complex, more challenging for american interests than any president of the eight they served. >> this is about whether or not we with promote a world that ultimately can share in the values that the united states is all about. if the united states doesn't provide that leadership, nobody else will. nobody else will. >> i think it's very fair to say that president obama is a retrenchment president. he doesn't want america to overcommit the military. the emphasis is on quick, nighttime, lightfoot print raids. if you are obama you argue the military is in a lot better shape than when i got it

because i don't have 180,000 troops in iraq and afghanistan fighting wars that are, a, unwinnable, and b, not that important. >> grave concerns about the army forces to have a great deal of power of war with one or two of four countries, you're talking about china, russia, iran and north korea. >> we're going to see ourselves potentially in a war that's far greater than what we have experienced in the middle east, given everything that the president of the united states has been told about the complexity and the danger that exists in the world today. stop the bleeding that you are causing to our armed forces. bret: the u.s. has been involved in nonstop military action abroad for more than a decade and a half, and americans are widely thought to be war-weary, but we all know it is still a very dangerous world. our first president, george washington, famously warned his young country against foreign

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we've talked about anything that affected people and their money. from fox business headquarters and new york city, the new "wall street week." anthony: welcome to "wall street week," the show of record for the long-term investing, i'm anthony scaramucci. >> and i'm maria bartiromo in this weekend for gary kaminsky. good to see you, anthony.